Report cited minor issues on ski lift

A passing skier waited with one of the eight people injured Tuesday when a chair lift derailed and sent several cars plunging about 30 feet to the ground at the Sugarloaf ski resort in Maine.
(Jack Michaud/Associated Press)

Associated Press
/
December 31, 2010

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PORTLAND, Maine — An October inspection uncovered three problems with a Sugarloaf ski lift that derailed and fell to the ground this week, injuring eight people, but the issues appeared to be routine, according to an inspection report.

An inspector found that the 35-year-old East Spillway lift needed a guard placed over a drive shaft running from an electric motor to a service brake and recommended that trees and brush be cut under the top section of the chair’s run. He also wrote that some of the numbers on the lift towers were missing or not visible.

Sugarloaf took care of the first two problems and said it would put numbers on the towers once they were painted before ski season started, the report said.

The report does not shed any light on what might have made a lift cable pop out of place Tuesday morning, causing five chairs to plummet 25 to 35 feet to the ground. The Carrabassett Valley resort, 120 miles north of Portland, said employees were attempting to realign the cable when the accident happened.

Eight people were sent to hospitals, and dozens more were stranded on the lift for more than an hour.

The problems identified in the annual inspection report were routine maintenance issues, “nothing out of the ordinary,’’ said Sugarloaf spokesman Ethan Austin.

At least one of the injured skiers remained hospitalized yesterday. Mike Katz was in satisfactory condition at Maine Medical Center in Portland.

The Maine Board of Elevator and Tramway Safety is continuing to investigate the accident, officials said.

Austin said the lift, which was installed in 1975 and modified in 1983, remained out of commission yesterday.

The damaged chairs and the wheels supporting the cable were being brought to the bottom of the mountain for inspection as part of the investigation, he said.